16 Harold and Maya

The old man raised his hand to call the little girl. Slowly, the little girl emerged from her hiding place, her curious eyes not leaving the beautiful stranger that entered their house.

"This is Maya," the old man said with a small smile. "My daughter."

"My name is Harold, by the way."

Althea was a bit surprised at the fact that Maya was his daughter. She thought she would be his granddaughter.

The man, seemingly aware of her stare, was apparently used to this reaction. He gave her a kind smile, in response. "My wife gave birth very late. Maya is a miracle."

They had been trying to have a child for twenty or so years after their marriage. He was already in his fifties and his wife in her late forties when they found out that they had finally gotten pregnant.

His wife also died of dystocia because of this.

No matter how advanced science was, it could not always cheat death.

"My condolences…"

"Thank you," the old man said, "But, to be honest, I'm just happy we both survived." 

She nodded. What were the chances, right? She hadn't found survivors after so long, but suddenly there were two. 

Althea smiled, "Well, we are blessed," she said before pausing, looking at the two of them in observance. "What do you know about what's happening?"

Harold did not speak immediately, composing his words for fear of sounding too ridiculous.

"Well, we know those monsters appeared a few hours ago outside the gate. They wanted to reach out to me but I just hid here."

Althea was a bit surprised. "Only you two are in the house?" Otherwise, they wouldn't have so little experience with zombies.

The man nodded. "I am the housekeeper here, and my master allowed my daughter to stay with me as a work benefit. My master generally lives abroad with his family, this is just an inheritance from his parents so he didn't want to sell it."

Althea thought for a while before speaking. "Well, I suggest you kill a few. Take a long tool and poke their heads through the gates." She paused and looked at the little girl. "She should do it too."

"What?" The man looked at her in disbelief, suddenly regretting letting her in.

Did he bring in a psycho?

Althea knew no amount of words could make them understand the weirdness that had been happening in the world.

Instead, she took out two of the three remaining golf clubs from the backpack space. 

Two things appearing out of thin air was definitely a shocking sight.

Harold gasped and Maya even yelled. The little girl suddenly stood up to look at the clubs closely, losing her shyness. "Magic! So cool!"

Althea smiled, handing the putter to the girl and the wood to Harold. "It's a system backpack, you can have it too if you kill those monsters."

Harold looked at her warily, but also with curiosity. After some internal monologue, he decided to listen to her more in the end.

"Can you tell us why?" He asked, "Why all these things…."

Why are these things happening to us?

"You should've heard the news that the sun is dying, right?" She asked and Harold nodded after a thought. "My theory is that the monsters outside had to do with some weird force field that the sun released, mutating the genes of living things.

"Of course, this is only my own supposition." She couldn't help but add.

"A force called 'Universe System', or something, will apparently send us somewhere else before the planet becomes completely uninhabitable—which is less than 24 hours."

She let this idea sit for a while. She knew it sounded ridiculous.

But… wasn't everything that had been happening the past few hours no less insane?

"It's just that this system should only get triggered when you kill one of those monsters." She continued, calmly explaining.

"If you activate it, you will also level up and improve your physique. The more you kill, the stronger you will be. You will also get money. I'm assuming the currency in the system is the currency of the new world."

As for how she knew… she didn't. Not for certain. But it was the only hypothesis she had that made sense.

Anyway, regardless of whether or not they activated the system, they would have to fight those things sooner rather than later.

She stood up and patted the non-existent dust on her pants. "Well, it's time for me to go now. Very good to meet you."

The other two were taken aback. She was obviously sitting comfortably just now? "Where are you going?"

"Exploring. Preparing myself for what's to come." She only said, not explaining any more. They wouldn't be able to imagine it, anyway. "For now I suggest you deal with those monsters outside the gate."

As she walked to the door, she turned her head to look at the dumbfounded pair. "Be careful."

"Y-You, too.." Harold uttered as he finally realized she was really leaving. It was Maya who stood up and went closer.

"Bye-bye, pretty sister!" She said and Althea unconsciously smiled. Looking at the girl's cute large circular eyes, Althea couldn't help but give a few more tips. She turned to look at Harold.

"Try to hit the openings of their bodies like the eyes and the mouth," She told him, her soft palm touching the putter on the girl's hands. "Their brains must be destroyed. Better if you can decapitate their heads."

"...thank you " was all old Harold could say. 

To be honest, his small brain still hadn't wrapped around everything she said, but his instincts told him to listen nevertheless.

He had no idea he'd be thanking this pregnant girl a lot more in the future.

….

Next stop: Drug Lord's Lair

...was what she wanted to say.

There was no way, the Pregnancy Snooze was a real need.

She couldn't speak for other survivors, but she, for one, really needed her rest.

Althea had a hunch that it would be troublesome in the last house. Her eyelids were getting heavy, anyway.

While the improved body of her level gave her unprecedented strength, she still needed to relax for a bit first.

So she climbed up a clean bed of the next villa and... took a well-deserved rest.